Here is a GREAT sermon by Mike Erre regarding what the Bible teaches us about sex. Please share with us your thoughts/comments. This is from his study of 1 Corinthians 6-7.
Category Archives: Sermons
Part 5: Can the resurrection show us God?
This is the 5th of 5 lectures/sermons in the Show me God series. This was taught by Bucky on Easter Sunday. It points out the importance and power of the resurrection. As Paul said, “If Christ hasn’t come back to life, our message has no meaning and your faith also has no meaning.” (1Co 15:14 GW)
Part 3: Can Christianity show us God?
In this 3rd of 5 parts, we discuss why Christianity is unique and why it is beneficial. The latest trend in antiChristian literature is a group of ‘new’ atheists who are aggressively preaching that Christianity is bad. In this teaching time, we will look at the validity of this claim.
Part 4: Does suffering show us God?
This is the 4th of a 5 part series that we did at Pathways Church. Bucky does a powerful job of sharing the uniqueness of Christianity and the power of the cross to help us during our suffering. Evil and suffering is a topic of great concern to all of us. We have a history of posts on this important topic that you can review by simply scrolling down and looking to the right to see under the categories section: Evil and Suffering link.
As always, please share your thoughts with us.
Passover and the Cross
I missed yet another ‘God moment’ when I was listening in to a discussion between 2 families about passover and the cross. Lacking the courage and/or energy to speak up, I listened as the Jewish family and the Catholic family had this dialogue with the conclusions that the passover and the cross are stories that shared from each other and just happen to fall on the same days this year. I proceeded to try and share with my sister the incredible parallel’s between the passover and the cross during our Good Friday dinner discussions.
We have lost sight of the incredible and miraculous design of the Bible: “The old testament is the new testament concealed and the new testament is the old testament revealed.”-Chuck Missler
One historical event that is truly miraculous and shows us the overwhelming design of the Bible message is the passover and its foretelling of Jesus and his ministry.
Enjoy Mike’s great message as he points out some of the incredible connectedness between the passover and the cross.
- I have always thought that the plagues in Exodus were just random and honestly very bizarre choices for God to make–locust, frogs, etc…BUT Mike points out that each plague represented God’s very specific and intential counter to each of the major Egyptian false gods. Once again our western minds and education miss the point and see the choice of plagues as funny and random to satisfy our desire to make fun at the Bible and it’s ‘God’; when in reality, the God of the Bible is VERY real and chose each plague carefully to point out to the Egyptian people that they were worshipping false gods/idols!
- The Jewish slaves had 2 problems–slavery and the wrath of God just as we have the same 2 problems today (as Paul points out in Ephesians 2)–slavery to sin and the wrath of God.
- wrath of God: 1. God’s wrath is used to do all that can be done to eliminate sin and 2. again our western mind set now is fixated on God’s love and ignore His Holiness. But the new testament teaches a different covenant but NOT a different God–the entire Bible teaches of God’s Holiness (His only attribute that is emphasized in the Old Testament by Isaiah’s statement: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord…). With His holiness comes His wrath against anything that is not holy–i.e. our sin! 3. When we sin and God allows it to continue–that is His judgment; when we sin and we get caught–now that is His mercy… 4. God’s wrath and love merge at the cross.
Enjoy Mike’s sermon and please share your thoughts.
Here is a GREAT summary of the passover and the cross–the golden thread of redemption and the incredible design proven by prophecy and foreshadowing in the Bible is AMAZING!
Part 2: Does the Bible show us God?
This is Part 2 of our 5 part series titled: Show me God. Part 2 we discuss the evidence for the Bible showing us God and being inspired by God. Please share your thoughts.
Show Me God
The Bible
Dr. Drew Lawson and Pastor Bucky Dennis
The God Who Shows Up
Creation
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” Romans 1:20
Ask questions:
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What do you believe? What are the conclusions to your worldview? What do you get without God?
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Are you willing to believe? Are you willing to believe that miracles are possible?
Now We Can Talk About the Bible: God’s Word
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16
Why Trust the Bible?
Manuscript Evidence
The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) written between 45-60 A.D.
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Book of Acts (Spectacularly accurate historically; must be dated before 62 AD)
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Fall of Jerusalem is not mentioned even though Acts started in Jerusalem.
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Nero’s persecution not mentioned that occurred in 64 AD
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Paul is still alive; no mention of his death (Paul died in 64AD @ Nero’s persecution)
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Paul’s Experiences & Writings Documented between 32-56 A.D
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Creeds and Oral Tradition (Phil. 2:6-11, Col. 1:15-20, 1Cor. 15:5) between
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33-38A.D.
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“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
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Credible Witnesses (1 John 1; 2 Peter 1:16; John 20:30; Luke 1:3)
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Eight men eyewitnesses or had contact with eyewitnesses (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, Peter, Jude)
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“For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” 2 Peter 1:16
Archaeology Evidence
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Walls of Jericho- Joshua 6:2-5
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King David- Tell Dan Stone that Read “House of David” and “The King of Israel”
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Acts 27- Anchors away
Prophecy Evidence
“From the beginning I revealed the end. From long ago I told you things that had not yet happened, saying, “My plan will stand, and I’ll do everything I intended to do.” Isaiah 46:10
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Messianic Prophecy:
Isaiah 53:3-9
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”
Scientific Evidence
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
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Scientific perspective
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Other creation accounts
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Genesis account
Part 1: Does science show us God?
This is Part 1 of our 5 part series titled: Show me God. Part 1 we discuss the evidence from creation and design for God. Please share your thoughts.
Show Me God
Creation
Dr. Drew Lawson and Pastor Bucky Dennis
The God Who Shows Up
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Looking for God
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Facing our doubts
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Reasons for faith
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Creation: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” Romans 1:20
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Word: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16
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Christianity: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35
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Suffering: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles.” 2 Corinthians 1:3
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Resurrection: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
God’s Priority
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A love relationship
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A free will offering
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Faith verses certainty
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“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
The Clues for God in Creation
Creator: The Mysterious Bang- How did you get something from nothing?
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“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” Psalm 102:25
Designer: Complexity and Wonder
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“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.” Psalm 19:1
- “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:13-14
Worship
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“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Hebrews 11:1-3
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“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” Psalm 8:1
Resources for the Journey
The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel
What’s So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D’Souza
Websites
Dr. Lawson http://www.coachdrewlawson.com
Hugh Ross Http://www.reasons.org
Stand to Reason http://www.str.org
What does it look like to be the Good Samaritan?
An AMAZING sermon by Pastor Bucky regarding the daring adventure to be a Good Samaritan, to be the hands and feet of Jesus to our world. This is a POWERFUL sermon that I am confident you will enjoy. At the end of his sermon there is an incredible testimony of what we can do if we lead with God’s grace and love EVEN when we can’t or don’t want to.
Brennan Manning #4: Abba’s Child
This is part 4 of 4 in the Brennan Manning speaking series from Mariners Church in 1996. It is AMAZING! I have been sharing these lectures with men from my men’s group for years, and they ALL have been AMAZED and changed by his beautiful insights, humor, and stories. If you haven’t heard him speak or read any of his books please start NOW.
Some of my favorites:
Brennan Manning #3: My Journey with Jesus
This is part 3 of 4 in the Brennan Manning speaking series from Mariners Church in 1996. It is AMAZING! I have been sharing these lectures with men from my men’s group for years, and they ALL have been AMAZED and changed by his beautiful insights, humor, and stories. If you haven’t heard him speak or read any of his books please start NOW.
Some of my favorites:
Brennan Manning #2: Relentless Tenderness of God
This is part 2 of 4 in the Brennan Manning speaking series from Mariners Church in 1996. If you haven’t heard him speak or read any of his books please start NOW. It is AMAZING! I have been sharing these lectures with men from my men’s group for years, and they ALL have been AMAZED and changed by his beautiful insights, humor, and stories. If you haven’t heard him speak or read any of his books please start NOW.
Some of my favorites:
A Christmas & New Years Truth from Ephesians 1
Paul teaches in his letter to the Ephesians that we are ALL blameless, beloved, and eternally adopted by God through Jesus Christ. Listen to this brief summary of his teaching, and share your thoughts about this revolutionary teaching from Paul.
Brennan Manning #1: The Overwhelming Love of God
Brennan Manning spoke at Mariners Church in 1996. I have added this 4 part series to uberlumen for your listening pleasure. It is AMAZING! I have been sharing these lectures with men from my men’s group for years, and they ALL have been AMAZED and changed by his beautiful insights, humor, and stories. If you haven’t heard him speak or read any of his books please start NOW.
Some of my favorites:
Miracles and Healings AMAZING Stories
Ever since the 1st Century church emerged and their miracle and healing stories were documented in the book of Acts et al, the church has been filled with such stories. There has been a ground swell in Christianity to focus again on the early Church model of miracles and healings. What are your thoughts about this? JP Moreland in his wonderful book, The Kingdom Triangle, points out and discusses this epidemic of miracles and healings occurring worldwide in Christianity noting that American Christianity continues to fall behind in this resurgence of the early Church model of Christianity.
We have been posting interviews and stories regarding miracles and healings as well. The posts have been generated by a missionary friend who has experienced these miracles and healings first hand. He has shifted his ministry from the traditional evangelical Christian model of the last 50 years to a miracle and healing ministry, and he has seen incredible things. This is yet another audio clip of such miracles and healings from a mentor of his.
This brief audio clip is from Pastor Bill Johnson at Bethel Church in Redding, CA. He tells numerous stories of miracles and healings.
Do you believe it? What do you think? Please click on the title of this post and then scroll down to leave your comments.
Purple People
“Now tell me again who is blue and who is red?”
Racist, stupid, bigoted, evil….these are some of the words used to describe ‘us’ by ‘them’.
Intolerant, arrogant, angry, blind….these are some of the words used to describe ‘them’ by ‘us’.
Something has gone terribly wrong here.
We worship a God who is BIGGER than ALL of THAT!
We follow a God who became a man who was beaten, whipped, tortured, mocked by the ruling government of his day.
We cherish the LOVE of a God who was mocked by guards who made him wear a robe that symbolized royalty, KINGSHIP as they laughted and scorned and cried out, “King of the Jews! Ha Ha Ha!”
The robe he wore was PURPLE: The color of KINGSHIP.
We are NOT blue; we are NOT red. We ARE the PURPLE people. We follow and worship the God in the PURPLE robe who loves each of us as if we are the ONLY person in the universe.
Share with us your comments after you listen to Rob Bell’s teaching titled: Beware the Dogs and Greg Boyd’s teaching titled: Defying Tanks. These are 2 of the MOST challenging sermons that I have heard. After you listen, PLEASE share your thoughts on some practical and specific ways that we can transform our world!
Men’s Topic #6: Love the one you’re with
Our topic this week was about LOVING your spouse. In our OC world everyone is looking for more, coveting, and thinking that ‘the grass is always greener’. If you want a GREAT marriage, you have to stop looking at the other lawns and stop and water your own grass! i.e. a GREAT marriage takes SACRIFICE and HARD WORK and COMMITTMENT to LOVE her with CHRIST’S LOVE!
Our Scripture for this week is: Ephesians 5:25-33
Here is Dave’s summary email:
| I want to thank Robby for being a man of courage; it isn’t easy getting up in front of a bunch of men when you are the youngest and possibly the least experienced in the group regarding the topic you were speaking on. Robby spoke on Ephesians 5:25-33. If you haven’t read it in a while please do so. It offers great marital advice. Robby told us how he sees love – as an action word, not a feeling. Love, Robby said, is not about us but about other people. Verse 25 states, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Then, smack dab in the middle of those verses is the line, “He who loves his wife loves himself.” Wow, pretty powerful, huh?
Some things that went around the room during our discussion time were: – Love has nothing to do with the physical and everything to do with the heart – Jesus is our love coach – Marriages get neglected in the name of material success – Show love by praying with and for one another; you cannot be angry with someone if you are praying with/for them – Know your spouse’s “love language,” whether it is gifts, affirmation, physical touch, time or service (from Gary Chapman’s book, The Five Love Languages) – Spend some quality, uninterruptible time on the couch with your spouse when you first get home from work (“couch time”) – Get rid of your television and your children’s cell phones – If together, we can keep our eyes focused on Jesus rather than the imperfect human beings we are, and ask Him to love our spouse through us, we will grow closer to Him and to our spouse – as you both grow closer to Christ you grow closer to each other…. As always, please share your thoughts/comments with us!
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Men’s Topic #3: 3 Attacks on our Identity as men
Bucky taught us from Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus prepared Himself for his encounter with satan by fasting for 40 days and nights! We lose sight of the fact that ‘fasting IS feasting’ on God and His word. Fasting and prayer and meditation on His word doesn’t weaken us but strengthens us for battle.
There are 3 temptations/3 attacks that the world and satan use to attack our identity:
- performance trap: world tries to convince us that our identity is linked to our performance
- control trap: world tries to convince us that our identity is linked to how much power/control we have
- worldly possession trap: world tries to convince us that we are what we own
What is the cure for this pack of lies, attacks, temptations?
- Our identity DOES NOT come from what we do but who we are to God. We are His beloved!
- Our identity DOES NOT come from our power and control but our job is to submit and put our trust in God. We must give over our control to God.
- Our identity DOES NOT come from our stuff. We are NOT what we own!
note: we also talked about how the world and satan love to isolate men. Being in community, in fellowship with other men is essential!
As always PLEASE leave us your thoughts/insights etc by clicking on the “0 comments” in yellow at the bottom of this post and leave a comment.
Paul Young speaks and preaches AGAIN
This is the 1 of 4 teachings from July 2008 at Mariners Church when the author of the amazing book: The Shack spoke. (There are 4 separate podcasts that you can listen from Mariners Church podcast; these 2 are the best of the 4.)
As always please share with us your thoughts by leaving a comment.
Paul Young SPEAKS about The Shack etc.
This is the 1 of 4 teaching sessions from Mariners Church by Paul Young author of the amazing, must read book: The Shack. In this session he shares some of his life’s experiences and answers some of the common questions people have about the book. (There are 4 separate podcasts that you can listen from Mariners Church podcast; these 2 are the best of the 4.)
Please share your thoughts with us here at UBERLUMEN by posting a comment.
God Questions Part 4
This is 4 of 4 in the God Questions series. Save the best for last? This is the age old question: Is Christianity the only way? Don’t all roads lead to God?
I LOVE what Paul Young points out in his amazing book:The ShacKAs the main character, Mack, is talking to Jesus, Mack asks, “Does that mean that all roads will lead to you?” And Jesus replies, “Not at all, most roads don’t lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you.”-pg 182
YES!!!!